~The Already Not Yet Journey~

Archive for June, 2011

In honor of Father’s Day tomorrow, I thought it would be appropriate to revisit this Wall Street Journal article from last year, “Daddy Was Only a Donor”. The author is W. Bradford Wilcox of the wonderful Public Discourseweblog / online magazine.

Mr. Wilcox challenges the messages we receive from Hollywood and an aggressive liberal sociologists that “mothers can do just as well raising children with donor fathers as they can with real ones.” From a study by Commission on Parenthood’s Future, the reality is far more bleak.

The article reviews some of the studies findings, and includes this heartbreaking quote:

The study’s findings echo recent commentary from young adults conceived through donor insemination. Writing in the Washington Post a few years ago, Katrina Clark reported that she envied friends who had both a mother and a father. “That was when the emptiness came over me. I realized that I am, in a sense, a freak. I really, truly would never have a dad. I finally understood what it meant to be donor-conceived, and I hated it.”

We are hard-wired for the same values that Judeo-Christians have taught and followed for millenia. To continue to deny that while pursuing this brave new world of self-gratification is only creating broken people who grow up thinking of themselves as “freaks.” Despite all the propaganda, the social messages and cues, and the full backing of the media machine, these children do not accept that their lives are normal. Just the opposite. And statistic after statistic shows it.

Mr. Wilcox sums up the situation (as of last year’s Father’s Day):

So, despite the latest propaganda in favor of a father-optional future, this study suggests two stubborn truths: Children long to know and be known by their biological fathers, and they are much more likely to thrive when they have their own father in their lives.

On this Father’s Day, men who have managed to be good flesh-and-blood fathers to their children should take some satisfaction from the findings found in “My Daddy’s Name is Donor.” Even if the Big Screen portrays them as superfluous, in the real world, their kids are much more likely to turn out “all right” than kids who only know their daddy as Donor.

So…the research blog for the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate(CARA) at Georgetown University has posted a blog entry on its research that purports to show that interest in Catholicism is dramatically down. The author comes to this conclusion by virtue of CARA’s research which shows that Google searches for the word “Catholic” are down not only domestically, but internationally. The headline, “Is Interest in Catholicism Falling Online?” sounds alarming and I’m sure it is meant to be. It certainly rattled me when I saw it linked over at NewAdvent. I can only conclude that our reaction is supposed to be

Oh, woe is us! The sky is falling on our New Evangelization!

to which I can only respond

Poppycock.

You heard me. The Henny Penny headline is only part of the problem I have with the article. I looked over this “research” and no one should be drawing ANY conclusions from it…except to say that people aren’t looking up the word “Catholic” on Google. Big deal. That hardly means a lack on interest in Catholic things on the internet.

I know this both intellectually and personally. Intellectually, the gaps between this “research” and the author’s “conclusion” are very wide, so wide that we can dismiss his conclusion. In other words, I am saying that the data–while it does not negate the author’s conclusion — by no means answers the author’s question, posed in his sensationalized headline, “Is Interest in Catholicism falling online?”, a question which the author answers affirmatively. The author, Mark Gray writes, “the data shown… indicates that people may be less likely to be looking for Catholic content now than in the past.” Hmmm.

In his assertions, Mr. Gray is guilty of several reasoning errors known as Fallacious Generalizations:

Overgeneralization / Sweeping generalization – The author takes the research of Google and concludes that fewer people are using Google to look up the word “Catholic” therefore interest in Catholicism has waned. However, even a person with a most rudimentary exposure to research techniques can immediately notice the limited nature of the underlying research. Google, while the most popular search engine, is by no means the only search engine. Furthermore, there are thousands and thousands of searches that can involve Catholic doctrine, theology, history, worship, prayer, culture, teachings, arts and news that do not use the word “Catholic”. Examples?

“Pro-life resources”

“Pope in Croatia”

“Theology of the Body”

“Saints and martyrs”

“How to say the Rosary”

“What is the Assumption”

“Refute sola scriptura”

“counter Reformation”

“beatification of John Paul”

Argumentum a silentio – “You do not Google, therefore you are not.” It did not show up in the limited research, therefore, it must not be.

Fallacy of Division – “Since “Catholic” is a less popular search term today, the trend shows people are not interested in Catholic things.” (Substituting a part for a whole). See examples listed above.

Finally, I can see absolutely from personal experience that folks out reading Catholic websites, blogs and resources are most likely NOT ‘googling’ them to get there and certainly not by typing in “Catholic” in the search bar. I get almost no visitors using the term “Catholic”. One of my top posts of all times is the one I did on the myth of unlimited Vatican wealth. How do those folks find it? by typing in

“How wealthy is the Vatican?”

I kid you not. I get 20 visitors a month from that search alone. Seems people really, really want to know how wealthy the Vatican is and that search does not show up in the CARA data. Nor does “how to pray the Rosary”, “Christian persecution”, and “little popes” all of which send me handfuls of visitors every month. Searches on “beauty”, “late have I loved thee”, and “kneeling in church” also send me a significant amount of traffic. I could go on, but you get my point.

In other words, the use of the Internet is an ever-changing, dynamic thing and our society gets more sophisticated in its use all the time. So fewer people are googling the “Catholic” word now than in years past. That is a trend for Google to ponder, not necessarily one for Catholics in the new media to obsess over. Plus heck, some of us think that Google is evil. Evil like Disney.

In conclusion, dear Reader, (and not a fallacious conclusion either)…however you got here to my webblog, I appreciate your taking the time to read this. I hope you have taken a big breath and sighed a sigh of relief and remember: the sky is not falling. You can google it.

(on a side note, a big “Boo” to NewAdvent for posting the ad hominem research piece under the even more Henny Penny-ish title, “When you crunch the numbers, there’s no escaping it: Interest in Catholicism is falling online“. Sheesh, people get a hold of yourselves.)

On June 7th, Muslims in Nigeria destroyed the Catholic Cathedral of St. Patrick in the northern capital city of Maiduguri. Recently, as many as 16 Nigerians have died in the most recent daily attacks. Furthermore, estimates are that nearly 500 people have been killed since the April election of that countries first Christian president. There have been other churches bombed, and an estimated 40,000 people have fled from the northern, mostly Muslim north. The Islamic group claiming responsibility have even killed an Islamic leader who opposed the ongoing attacks.

I know I repeat myself, but we need to educate ourselves. Christians are the most persecuted group on earth. That’s not just a saying, it is a statistic and a fact. According to the Zenitarticle below, a Christian is killed every five minutes in the world, not accidentally, but solely because he or she is a Christian. And those numbers are in large part children. This ongoing persecution is happening in Egypt, Pakistan, Cote d’Ivoire, Nigeria…and on and on. With the exception of Communist countries China and North Korea, the rest of the top 10 most dangerous countries for Christians are Muslim.

The sociologist in the article below comes very close to speaking the plain truth at a conference on Christian-Jewish-Muslim interfaith dialogue, he tells the participants that unless something is done about the approximately 100,000 Christians killed every year, “interfaith dialogue” is meaningless. To that I say, “Amen.”

ROME, JUNE 3, 2011 (Zenit.org).- A sociologist representing a European security organization says that the number of Christians killed each year for their faith is so high that it calculates to one martyr’s life being taken every five minutes.

Massimo Introvigne of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) reported this data at a conference on Christian-Jewish-Muslim interfaith dialogue, which concluded today in Hungary. The conference was sponsored by the Hungarian presidency of the Council of the European Union, and included a variety of high-level representatives from the three monotheistic religions, as well as political and social leaders.

Introvigne reported that Christians killed every year for their faith number 105,000, and that number includes only those put to death simply because they are Christians. It does not count the victims of civil or international wars.

“If these numbers are not cried out to the world, if this slaughter is not stopped, if it is not acknowledged that the persecution of Christians is the first worldwide emergency in the matter of violence and religious discrimination, the dialogue between religions will only produce beautiful conferences but no concrete results,” he stated.

Egyptian diplomat Aly Mahmoud said that in his country laws have been passed that will protect Christian minorities, for example, prosecuting those who give speeches that incite hatred and banning hostile crowds outside churches.

“However, the danger is that many Christian communities in the Middle East will die from emigration, because all Christians, feeling threatened, will flee,” he said.

The diplomat suggested Europe prepare for “a new wave of emigration, this time from Christians fleeing the persecutions.”

For his part, Metropolitan Hilarion Alfeyev, chairman for the Russian Orthodox patriarchate’s Department of External Church Relations, reminded that “at least 1 million” Christian victims of persecutions are children.

AFRICA/COTE D’IVOIRE-“It is urgent to find accommodation for 27,000 displaced persons welcomed in the parish of Duékoué”: the concern of the Bishop of Man

Duékoué (Agenzia Fides) – The plague of the displaced persons welcomed in the parish of Duékoué, in western Côte d’Ivoire continues. In late March, following the conquest of the city by the Republican Forces in Côte d’Ivoire (RFCI) faithful to the current president Alassane Ouattara, about 27,000 people, mostly gueré ethnic group(supporters of President Gbagbo) have taken refuge in the small Catholic mission in the city.
“The situation gets more and more dramatic: 27,000 people living within the space of a small parish. Each of them live in just a square meter. The sanitary and health conditions are so poor, “says Bishop Gaspard Beby Gnéba, Bishop of Man to Fides, and Duékoué is part of this territory.
The UNMCI (United Nations Mission in Côte d’Ivoire) ensures the safety of these people while Caritas provides meals and health service. The presence of UN soldiers, however, is not sufficient to reassure the refugees and bring them back home. “The uncertainty is still very strong. But the real problem is that these people have no home to go back to because their homes have been ransacked, destroyed and burned, “said Mgr. Gnéba. “It is urgent to find another place for these people, as well as guaranteeing security to those who still have a home and want to return. You then need to rebuild destroyed homes, ” concluded the Bishop of Man (LM) (Agenzia Fides 31/05/2011)

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Opera Christi non deficiunt, sed proficiunt

"The work of Christ never recedes, but progresses"

The Little Way:

"Love proves itself by deeds, so how am I to show my love? Great deeds are forbidden me. The only way I can prove my love is by scattering flowers and these flowers are every little sacrifice, every glance and word, and the doing of the least actions for love." -- St. Terese of Lisieux

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Holy Family with Ss. Michael, Francis and John the Baptist (unseen)

Prayer to St. Michael Archangel

Saint Michael the Archangel,
defend us in battle;
be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil.
May God rebuke him, we humbly pray:
and do thou, O Prince of the heavenly host,
by the power of God,
thrust into hell Satan and all the evil spirits
who prowl about the world seeking the ruin of souls.
Amen.

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Sharing in the Commission

[L]ay Christians...have the right and duty, individually or grouped in associations, to work so that the divine message of salvation may be known and accepted by all men throughout the earth. -- Catechism of the Catholic Church

Scattering flowers

“Ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ.”–St. Jerome (quoted in the Catechism)

This is the book of the commandments of God, and the law that is for ever. All that keep it shall come to life: but they that have forsaken it, to death. --Baruch 4:1

Simon Peter answered him, "Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life." --John 6:68

God has entrusted to us the news of reconciliation. So we are ambassadors for Christ; it is as though God were appealing through us, and the appeal that we make in Christ’s name is: be reconciled to God. 2 Corinthians 5:19-20

So then, my beloved, obedient as you have always been, not only when I am present but all the more now when I am absent, work out your salvation with fear and trembling. For God is the one who, for his good purpose, works in you both to desire and to work. Do everything without grumbling or questioning, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine like lights in the world, as you hold on to the word of life. --Philippians 2:12-16

'Be still and know that I am God!" --Psalms 46:11

Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of flesh and spirit, making holiness perfect in the fear of God…I do not say this in condemnation, for I have already said that you are in our hearts, that we may die together and live together. I have great confidence in you, I have great pride in you; I am filled with encouragement, I am overflowing with joy all the more because of all our affliction.--2 Corinthians 7: 1, 3-4

The LORD himself will fight for you; you have only to keep still. --Exodus 14:14

Brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you
who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of
gentleness, considering yourself lest you also be
tempted. Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill
the law of Christ. -- Galatians 6:1-2

You have also forgotten the exhortation addressed to you as sons: "My son, do not disdain the discipline of the Lord or lose heart when reproved by him; for whom the Lord loves, he disciplines; he scourges every son he acknowledges."
Endure your trials as "discipline"; God treats you as sons. For what "son" is there whom his father does not discipline? -- Hebrews 12:5-7

Always be prepared to make a defense to any one who calls you to account for the hope that is in you, yet do it with gentleness and reverence; and keep your conscience clear, so that, when you are abused, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame -- 1 Peter 3:15-16

Take courage; get up, Jesus is calling you! -- Mark 10:49

But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given you besides. Do not worry about tomorrow; tomorrow will take care of itself. Sufficient for a day is its own evil. - Matt 6:33-34

One thing I ask of the LORD; this I seek: To dwell in the LORD'S house all the days of my life, To gaze on the LORD'S beauty, to visit his temple.--Psalms 27:4